PlayStation Vue launches live-TV service in three cities, starts at $49/mo

Includes free DVR service, lacks the ESPN and Disney family of stations.

The slow, trudging dinosaur that is the television industry took another shuffling step toward the modern era on Wednesday in the form of PlayStation Vue. Sony's new live TV-streaming service, announced in November, has now officially launched in three major American markets—New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia—with a three-tier subscription plan in each city.

In short, paying as much as $69.99 per month will let users watch at least 82 network and cable channels over the Internet through their PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 consoles, while downgrading to a $49.99 subscription will drop that station count to about 50 in each market.

Unlike its current major competitor, Sling TV, PlayStation Vue has the upper hand in terms of major network content—meaning CBS, Fox, and NBC, along with many of their cable subsidiaries (MTV/Comedy Central, FX/Fox Sports, and Bravo/USA, respectively). The obvious missing piece of that TV-watching puzzle is the ABC family of stations, and Sling has those in the form of ESPN (and its myriad offshoots) and a few Disney channels. The only major overlap these two Internet-live-TV services share is the Turner family of stations, meaning TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network, and Boomerang.

While Vue's default ask of $50 per month is far higher than Sling's lowest-tier cost of $20, each service's price-per-channel is comparable; Sling users just get more flexibility with content-specific add-on packages. (Sadly, neither service goes the a la carte route.) There's also the matter of Sling enjoying a nationwide launch already, not to mention a far larger digital footprint thanks to its desktop and mobile apps, along with a timed-exclusive launch on Xbox One consoles as of this week. Vue's logistical upper hand, for now, is its cloud-driven DVR service, which allows users to automatically store any shows—meaning no storage limits—for up to 28 days.

Until rumors about Apple's foray into TV-streaming come true, PlayStation Vue currently has the lead—albeit a region-limited, device-limited, and price-limited one—in doling out live-streaming access to a growing nation of cord-cutters.